This Prayer Thing

As humans, when something is good to us, we usually talk about it. That is just the way that we are wired. And our talking about a given thing makes others want to try it. Hold that thought for a moment.

Now, getting back to prayer, our subject for this month.  Why am I taking a whole month talking about prayer? Simple, it takes a whole lot of prayer to make it in this Christian life down here. If there are people who are discouraged and I write a few words to encourage them, then I am doing what the Lord has commanded me to do in Matthew 5:16 and Isaiah 50:4.

 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, NKJV)

“The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary. (Isaiah 50:4, NKJV)

Now, back to the thought that I asked you to hold in the first paragraph. As I have said before, God has people like me to tell you what He has done for us. Why, so that you will remember or learn that He is faithful and that He will take care of you and your cares, too. If you believe in Him, that is. God wants you to present all your cares to Him and leave His throne with a lightheartedness that you may not have known for quite some time. God will take care of you because He loves you; He is faithful, and He has written it in the Holy Writ to give you assurance. (Hebrews 4:16) You see, if I tell you often enough, with enough passion and with enough conviction, you will be convinced enough to try Him yourself. All it takes is a little belief (a little faith), and He will handle the rest.  And then...it will be like an avalanche.

Folk will start to ask you how you are making it through whatever trials and or troubles that you have with such lack of worry. And that is when you start to tell your story just like I have been telling mine. Yes, you will tell your story because you want to always stay in good standing with Him, so you will do the things that He has asked you to do, such as:

• Loving others the way that you want Him to love you


• Asking for forgiveness of your sins as you forgive others


• Thanking Him for answered prayer


• Spreading the knowledge of His goodness to your brother, sister, and neighbor and giving them the tool to take their situation apart and analyze it and come up with the same puzzled and wondrous summation that you did - that though their problem may be the same as it was an hour or day before prayer, that they are different because they no longer are worrying about it! Uh oh! Another one will have been taught to pray and to learn to love it.


• Going on about your day, doing good wherever you can with a smile, a kind deed, etc.  You might pick up a motto similar to mine, "Doing What I Can, While I Can."


• Remembering not to be surprised when you get the answer to the prayer that you prayed and remembering that nothing in this world lies beyond the reach of prayer unless it lies beyond the will of God.


• Realizing that prayer did not go out of business in Biblical days. There is no Gone to Lunch sign on the door of God's prayer answering business.


• Remembering that you do not have to worry about anything that threatens to destroy your joy,  your happiness. nor your peace.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Stepping On Carr-Jones

Here are three poems for you to enjoy about prayer:

Just Keeping in Touch

I awoke this morning and

My feet touched the floor

"Thank You, Lord, for one day more

In humble thanks, Dear God

I say, "It's You I adore."

You have allowed me to see

A plethora of days

You've charted my course

And guarded my ways

For all that You have done and do

I humbly bow and say, "Thank You."

********

Learning to Trust Him

You just have to learn to trust Him

Even when trusting Him is hardest to do

You have to show Him that your faith, though weak

Is still in Him by virtue of the great cloud

Of witnesses in the Holy Writ and by virtue

Of living witnesses that you have gotten the chance to talk to

Who continue to tell and pass down their story

That gives the God of heaven, glory.

********

Spirit Within

Sometimes thoughts just flow

As if they have a will of their own

As if they know the way to go

To reach the presence of the Holy One

But then, the Spirit dwells within

The hearts and minds of faithful men

To help us pass some perilous zones

So that hope is not lost, and joy is not gone.